New Post has been published on Citizensjournal.us
New Post has been published on http://citizensjournal.us/30079/
The May 19th Conejo Valley Unified School District Board meeting Tuesday night in Thousand Oaks was jam-packed with a standing room onl ycrowd.  The t board room which has a posted capacity of 130, had an overflow crowd watching the proceedings on the television in the lobby. Many in the audience had turned out in response to email pleas from groups of concerned citizens who voiced support of an amendment by Trustee Mike Dunn, and by several members of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) who were concerned about a perceived “hate” message in Dunn’s safety amendment to the proposed local school district policy.
 Nine speakers delivered their thoughts, pro and con, on the new California legislation, yet few directly addressed the item at hand, which was Dunn’s proposal for ensuring even more privacy than the proposed new local policy. Mr. Dunn defended his motion by saying that it contradicted neither the State law nor the CVUSD proposed policy. He wrote it in response to emails that he and co-trustee John Andersen had received from the community. Those emails voiced concerns for the safety of girls who might be in danger of molestation, particularly if a straight boy wanted to joke around and declare that he identified as female that day, and were to take advantage of this law by entering a bathroom, locker room or shower stall occupied by a female. This same thought was echoed in many of the speeches of opponents of the bill, AB 1266 which is now law. Most of those speakers took time during their short 3 minutes allotted to them to say that it was clear that there needs to be safeguards for transgenders and others in the LGBTQIA community (lesbians, gays, transgenders, questioning, intersexed, assexuals). Despite this support expressed by parents and grandparent speakers for the clear rights of gays not be bullied, those same speakersalso loudly called out for the rights of the majority of children who are not gay to have an expectation of privacy and safety in California public schools.
 After nearly an hour of public speeches and board discussion,  Dr. Betsy Connolly called for the vote. However, there was a breach of protocol and parliamentary procedure when Mrs. Buckles tried to get in a last word, without requesting to be recognized. She blurted out a couple of sentences saying that Dunn’s amendment had been reviewed by the district lawyers who told her that it would generate lawsuits. Dr. Connolly waved her down to stop talking, saying alright, ok, and such. Then the vote was taken and Dunn’s motion for a safety amendment was defeated 3 to 2, with only Dun and Andersen supporting it.  Next came the vote for the board policy itself. The vote was split ironically along gender lines.  The 3 yes votes came again from liberal democrat President Betsy Connolly, and RINO’s (republicans in name only) Patricia Phelps, and Peggy Buckles.
 Most of the audience left after the vote and they gathered in the lobby and the parking lot to review the events. A couple of PFLAG members contended that they heard hate speech, and that people had called their LGBT community “dangerous”. But that was a false narrative, similar to the mythical quote from the Ferguson riots of “hands up–don’t shoot”. The video tape of the meeting actually shows nearly every opponent of the bill also took time to declare that the gay and transgendered students do need protection from bullying, while pointing out that the real danger from this policy could come to female students by straight students entering bathrooms and locker rooms. No speaker at the meeting ever asserted that  transgender people or homosexual people are “dangerous”.
 Also in the parking lot was a group of college aged young people around Pastor Rob McCoy, a conservative political candidate. McCoy had shared publicly during his run for the Assembly that he has a sister who is homosexual. He did not speak to the board, but had stood at the back wall to watch the meeting and listen to the community speakers. After the voting, there were conversations overheard among the conservatives groups that this decision would result in a flood of lawsuits which would bankrupt the CVUSD.
 The whole conflict could become moot if the group Privacy for All Students is successful in puhing through a public referenum on the subjject, but that would take some time and we have a problem right now. http://privacyforallstudents.com https://www.facebook.com/privacyforallstudents
School Board to vote on controversial “bathroom bill” implementation
The Conejo Valley Unified School District School Board is voting on procedures to implement the state law known as the “bathroom bill” (AB 1266).  The procedures would allow any student to choose which bathroom or shower facilities they would like to use based on their current self-chosen gender identity.  ANY parent who cares about their children in the public school […]
In Case You Just Tuned In–Update on co-ed student bathrooms
In August of 2013, the Governor signed into law AB 1266. This bill repeated some existing legal language and then it added a shocking section that allowed K-12 public school students to choose the bathroom, locker room and shower facilities consistent with the student’s gender identity. Gender identity has nothing to do with your biological […]
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Cathy Carlson is a retired Naval intelligence specialist and an educator, who has lived in 5 countries, taught in Uzbekistan and was a District staffer for Tom McClintock when he was our State Senator. She resides in Thousand Oaks.
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